Re: emergency egress

[kowalskil <kowalskil@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

How would you formulate the message to express
identical concerns, Jim? I assume the essence of
John's message was perfectly clear to all of us.
Ludwik Kowalski

Jim Green wrote:
> > Slight physics problem: What happens to the energy when a person descends
> > 500 meters in such a slide? I don't like the picture that is forming in my
> > mind: frequent arrivals of people with 3rd degree friction burns....
>
> Third degree friction burns???  They would be burnt to a crisp.
>
> >   -- You can't dump the energy into the people (they would get too hot).
> >   -- You can't dump the energy into the slide (it would get too hot).
> >   -- You can't make the slide conduct heat to the outside, since part of
> > its job is to carry people past a region of flames.....
>
> But I continue to be disturbed at the archaic language of energy as a
> substance -- One would think that physicists would try to say things
> correctly.   It is the business of a physicist to be precise -- We try to
> teach our students precision -- Why do we cling to the past?
>
> Jim Green
> mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
> http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen